GoNintendo "End of day" thoughts - Nintendo World Store Phantom Hourglass launch

Yesterday was a very long day. A 3 hour event ended up taking over 12 hours when you factor in travel, dinner, and a few mishaps along the way. Nicky Hill and I get to go back into New York on Wednesday for some more hands-on events. I don’t know if I am ready for that!

Earlier last week, I had no idea that I would be heading into New York City come Sunday. Things were all quiet on the Nintendo front, and then on Wednesday they hit us with a surprise Phantom Hourglass launch party at the Nintendo World Store. Of course, being a big Zelda fan, I had to head out there and check out the festivities. There were going to be contests of the gaming and costume variety, as well as an early sale of Phantom Hourglass. I may have gotten my review copy, but the rest of the GoNintendo crew was still waiting for launch day. While a lot of the crew had scheduling conflicts, the ones that were around couldn’t resist the call of picking up Phantom Hourglass a couple days early. I set out early in the day with Mom Brain and Droth to head into New York City, check out the event, and get these ladies their Phantom Hourglass copies!

I’ve been to events at the Nintendo World Store before. The turnout for their parties has a pretty wide range depending on what game is coming out. The launch of Pokemon Diamond/Pearl was absolutely huge, both in public turnout and the events set up by Nintendo. While Phantom Hourglass’ event wasn’t anywhere near the scope of the Pokemon festivities, I’d have to say that it was one of the more successful events. There really were a lot of people at the store, eager to pick up their copy of the game. When you are a hardcore gamer, there’s nothing better than getting a game a few days early. It makes you feel so special! You could see that a lot of people felt the exact same way. The smiles on their faces were enough to get anyone around them excited.

As soon as you set foot in the Nintendo World Store, you were hit with the world of Zelda. They had a huge Phantom Hourglass backdrop set up. This was for taking pictures with the Link that was on duty. His outfit was absolutely perfect, but the head was quite freakish. An oversized “Twilight Princess-style” Link head on a normal body. Pretty much everyone I talked to was afraid of the thing! That didn’t stop people from taking pictures with him though. All this was going on while the store was pumping in Zelda music. They played just about every song from Zelda you could think of. They covered the original Legend of Zelda soundtrack in both NES and Famicom flavors, as well as songs from the rest of the series. Yes, they actually did play music from Majora’s Mask and Oracle of Ages/Seasons (and no, they didn’t do anything from the CD-i games!). You could hear the entry store humming/whistling along with the tunes.

As for actual events, the first bit of fun going on was a Zelda trivia contest. This was a sheet of paper that you had to fill out, and turn back in to the staff. The questions on the sheet ranged from the first Zelda title all the way up to more recent outings. While the questions weren’t super tough, you definitely had to be a Zelda fan to know them. If you missed out on any of the games in the series, it was a long shot that you would get the answers right. There were multiple rounds of trivia to keep whittling down the winners. Eventually there would be a final prize, but that didn’t come until a lot later in the day.

One of the other events was a wireless battle mode contest. Gamers were taking on each other in Phantom Hourglass battle mode sessions. This is the mode where you take turns playing as Link and the hunters. Your objective is to collect as many force gems as you can without getting caught. For a lot of people, this was their very first experience with the game. I was hanging around the battle area, checking out the reaction to this new mode. One young boy had his mother standing behind him, on the other side of the railing. She was almost like a coach, telling him where to run and to make sure to “stay alert!”. When that boy won a round, the mom would burst out in cheers and applause. There were many a high-five sessions traded. Now that’s a mom that’s into gaming!

While this was going on, the first sales of Phantom Hourglass started to ring in. The Nintendo World Store announced that you would be able to purchase Phantom Hourglass starting at 2:00 pm. Once they said that the games were actually on sale, a rush of people went for the counters. There were lines at both the upstairs and downstairs counters within and instant. The downstairs line was the biggest of the two. At the line’s height of popularity, it snaked around the front of the store, just about to the entrance of the building. These people were hungry for their game! Mom Brain and Droth were in the upstairs line, which seemed to move along quite nicely. You could see the giddy excitement on their faces, as well as everyone else in line. This is when you really got to see that you were surrounded by a bunch of people that know exactly how you feel about Zelda.

After the lines calmed down, the official costume contest started up. Some of the costumes ended up being nothing more than a mask, while other people went all out. Of course, there were a number of Links on hand. Some people went for a more cartoonish approach to the character, while others went for a more realistic Twilight Princess Link. There was one guy there that wore an outfit that was exactly like the Link from the first NES game. He didn’t make himself look like Link in the game, but he made his outfit exactly the same as Link’s outfit in the instruction booklet. That means he even had the orange tights to go with the outfit. While I think this was lost on a few people, a lot of the crowd new what he was going for.

The contest eventually got down to the finalists, where the crowd ended up deciding the winner. The man with the microphone would announce a person, and put his hand over their head. If you wanted them to win, you screamed as loud as you could. Earlier in the day I had met GoNintendo reader Julian, who actually came dressed to enter the contest. I grabbed a picture of him beforehand, and than went on to cheer for him as a finalist. His costume was a great mix of realistic and cartoonish pieces, and the crowd definitely liked what he had done. When it came time for his name to be announced, he received the most applause and screams by far. Mom B. almost blew out my eardrums with her cheers! It was no surprise to anyone that Julian won the entire contest. Not only did he get to take home a copy of Phantom Hourglass, he also received a DS Lite signed by Aonuma! Now I am officially jealous.

Actually a lot of people won great prizes. The best part was, a lot of them were GoNintendo readers! For instance, Kolma and Phishb0wl both won rounds of the trivia contest. I couldn’t believe how many GoNintendo readers there were at the event! It seems like every time I turned a corner I would meet someone else from the site. I had a blast following the events of the launch, but getting to meet up with people from the site was the best part. No matter where I go or what I cover, meeting people that read the site is always the highlight.

And just like that, the day had ended. The hours flew by in what seemed to be an instant. There was always something going on at the store, and I never found myself waiting for the next big event. Contests were going on all day long, people were happy beyond belief, and the Zelda love was flowing free. These kinds of events are fantastic. It’s always nice to get together with a bunch of people that share the same passion you have. Hopefully all the people that couldn’t attend got some fun out of reading this. I wish you all could have been there!